. . . a funny old life with multiple sclerosis

Tag Archives: Camille Coduri

As regular readers will know, I had been nominated for an MS Society Award for Digital Media.

We were invited to a glittering ceremony in London; The Teenager was bouncing off the walls with excitement and I was tugging at my hem and trying to suck my stomach, cheeks and thighs in with limited success, having packed on the pounds in the last few months, and probably looked more like a confused goldfish than a suave and sophisticated woman.

We arrived the night before, The Teenager delighted with our hotel room (oooh, there’s a kettle!), although he lost the Bed Battle: we shared a twin room and I bagsied the double bed and he got the single. He got his own back though, as he had packed his Playstation 2 (he’s totes retro) and hooked it up to the TV, shooting people left, right and centre. He explained it was for his ‘down time’ as he had also brought his study books.

We spent a wonderful evening with Janis Winehouse and her lovely husband, Richard, meeting at their house where The Teenager posed with one of Amy’s Grammy Awards before going for dinner at a local Greek restaurant.

The next day, we arrived at the venue and were soon in a whirl of catching up, meeting new people and being whisked away for photographs. Me and The Teenager had to sit on chairs next to each other, looking natural. Lol. After the ceremony, we did the same thing, although outside, right on Liverpool Street and without the chairs. Bemused commuters slowed down as they passed us posing by some balustrades. Were we famous? Er, no.

The Teenager was hyperventilating when he saw the lunch seating plan and danced around me as I tried to hold a serious conversation with people during the pre-ceremony drinks – ‘Mum, mum, mum, mum, remember Doctor Who? Billie Piper? Rose? Her mum? Well. Her mum in Doctor Who is sitting next to me. Honest.’ Yup, the amazing actress Camille Coduri was placed next to him and he was mesmerised as she chatted to him about his studies and how it was to work next to David Tennant.

He nearly fainted when he saw The Vaccines sitting at the table next to us and plucked up the courage to chat to them and get a few photos – he’s going to see them at the Reading Festival in the summer. His joy was complete.

I didn’t win the award, the honour going instead to Stuart Rose, a phenomenal fundraiser for the MS Society who is passionate about raising awareness about MS. Luckily there were no cameras trained on my face as, at the same time the award was announced, I had a text about my mum and burst in to tears.

Not the best timing, but I took myself off and sat quietly in the reception area and fixed my mascara (it really, really isn’t waterproof – they lied). I slid back to my seat, just in time to well up yet again when the Young Carer Award was announced. It was a truly incredible ceremony.

The next day, I woke up with a horrible cold and sniffled my way through an MS Council meeting at the head office of the MS Society before heading back to Paddington and back to real life.

I may not have won for my writing but it’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts, and everything me and The Teenager experienced was beyond amazing.

I have just heard that a little short story of mine has been accepted for publication – the second anthology I’ve been included in. I’m starting to think that although I didn’t win for my blog and book, I’m still doing ok.